dance through life

October 10, 2014

reading list: September 2014

112. Black Sunday* by Thomas Harris. I would do a quote here, because the writing is great, except: See rant.

112.5. Happy Birthday Madame Chapeau* by Andrea Beaty and David Roberts, one of the best children's verse-and-picture books I've ever seen. Unalloyed love.

113. Everything I Know About Love I Learned From Romance Novels* by Sarah Wendell. I don't know if there was much revelation for me here, but I certainly enjoyed it.

114. Moonraker's Bride* by "Madeleine Brent" a.k.a. Peter O'Donnell. A turn-of-the-last-century Gothic romance featuring a heroine raised in China, a family feud in England, a marriage of convenience, a faked death, and a hidden treasure of emeralds, plus the Boxer Rebellion! missionaries! a villainous villain! a rescue (by the heroine, thanks) in a snowstorm! In short: something for everyone.

115. Getting Rid of Bradley, by Jennifer Crusie. Once she comes up in conversation, I have to read something of hers.

116. The Lies of Locke Lamora* by Scott Lynch. Maybe it was the episodic, back and forth in time structure, but despite strong writing and a compelling pair of heroes this was a bit of a slog.

117. Biz Words: Power Talk for Fun and Profit* by "Stanley Bing." "Aggression is the fuel that most successful people need in order to dominate and conquer. But a little aggression goes a long way. Like any other tool, it is useless, even self-destructive, if not used appropriately."

118. When Will Jesus Bring the Pork Chops?* by George Carlin. Not nearly as funny as it should have been.

119. Please Write for Details* by John D. MacDonald. A 1959 standalone concerned with a half-assed artists' retreat in Cuernavaca. He does some very interesting tricks here, once I committed to it I really enjoyed it.

119.5. The Amber Room* by Steve Berry. Made it through part one and just didn't care; didn't finish. Hint: if the protagonist refers to his love interest as a bitch and the reader agrees, that is not promising.

120. Talk Sweetly to Me* by Courtney Milan. A novella, sweet & sexy story of an Irish novelist and a black "computer" (astronomical mathematician).

121. Elwha: A River Reborn* by Lynda V. Mapes with photography by Steven Ringman. A Seattle Times book about the un-damming of the Elwha River in Olympic National Park, absolutely great.

122. Wonder Woman Unbound: The Curious History of the World's Most Famous Heroine* by Tim Hanley. Interesting and frustrating.

Okay, now for the book rant.

"Black Sunday" is a very good book overall but fatally flawed (for me) by one of the three most heinous atrocities against an animal that I've ever read. I kept reading past that because TH had succeeded in hooking me into the story, and because I could not un-read the offending passage. I was stuck with it whether I finished the book or not.

I really don't think there's any excuse for that kind of thing, EVER. I can see why a poor writer might resort to it, because he wouldn't have the gift of characterization that Harris does. But it's wholly infuriating when perpetrated by someone who is an annoyingly good writer.

The other two such incidents are in Stephen King's "Apt Pupil" and T. H. White's "The Once and Future King." Why do these bother me so much? Well, because I have a vivid imagination for one thing, but mostly - really and truly - because it's not necessary.

The writers have already, in all three cases, thoroughly established that the perpetrator is an irredeemably vile character. A graphic scene of this nature to underline the point is excessive. Egregious. Akin to torture porn.

It is the reason I hated and will always hate "Dances with Wolves." Most of the movie is sentimental but largely-inoffensive nonsense. Then comes the big climax and RAGE. The wolf - and the horse - did not need to die to establish that the soldiers were the bad guys. That was abundantly clear already. The writer does not need to emphasize it in ways that will give animal lovers nightmares (and in that case it wasn't nearly as graphic as Harris/King/White).

These are the image files for each of my published works of fiction.
The L.A. Stories (currently twelve separate novellas) are available singly for Kindle and Kindle apps from Amazon.com; and collected 3 at a time in paperback or e-book editions, also from Amazon.
The L.A. Stories are being reworked and will be republished as completed, in e-book and paperback formats.
The four full-length novels are available for both Kindle and paperback formats.